A posbar skinning question

flyingfig · 6th May 2001, 04:54

Hi!

I'm working on my first skin and have come up on a bit of a problem - I know it's possible to make entire parts of the main window transparent using the region.txt file but I just need to make the edges of the various posbars transparent (or whatever would result in that appearance) because I'd like them to be quite a bit smaller than the defaults. And since they pass over a gradient background I can't really paint in the background. I've seen it done in skins before (Act 2 Finale for instance) so I know it's possible. I've looked in the NSDN for help but I couldn't find anything there (I may have missed something, it's totally possible). Maybe Winamp recognise a certain color as transparent (like in cursors) or something b/c .bmp's don't do transparency (?). And what of non-rectangular shapes? Gah, you all seem like a knowlegeable lot, any help here would be much appreciated.
thanks!
fig, hoping this wasn't too confusing

Namelessv1 · 6th May 2001, 06:07

Nope, sorry, cant be done. Ull just have to find some way to blend in the posbar. Now that takes skillz.

Mr Jones · 6th May 2001, 10:48

That "skin" you mentioned achieved it posbar effect by trimming the posbar.bmp image down to a single pixel wide line.

If you open the bitmap up you will see what I mean, I think thats the effect you are trying to achieve.

skinme! · 6th May 2001, 12:55

Yes, this is a trick that not many know about. Any bitmap that has been trimed is still valid. Whereas, if you leave a bitmap out the default skin shines through in all its glory, trimming (resizing) a bitmap to omit a certain button or part of an element means that winamp will use the modified bitmap, drawing that and leave anything omited to the already drawn main.bmp or whatever. This effectively creates transparency where the background IS displayed.

flyingfig (!?!), you state the posbar as an example. In the skin you mention, I think the posbar has a height of one pixel as opposed to the normal ten. This effect is achieved by having a btimap of 307 (is that right?) x 1. Other effects achievable through this method on posbar.bmp include getting rid of the active slider state and/or all buttons.

Unfortunately, this method has its drawbacks.

1) Any element further left or right than the element you wish to eliminate will also be left out.

2) A posbar (or any element for that matter) of one pixel will not be centered (horizontally or vertically) in the space usually reserved for this element.

Back to my history essay...

cyana · 7th May 2001, 09:32

another tradeoff of trimmed bitmaps I suspect might be that the skin is not displayed correct at the winamp site - those white lines on bottom of the equalizer sliders might result from trimming (???) - anybody knows ?

Mr Jones · 7th May 2001, 11:40

Quote:

Originally posted by cyana
another tradeoff of trimmed bitmaps I suspect might be that the skin is not displayed correct at the winamp site - those white lines on bottom of the equalizer sliders might result from trimming (???) - anybody knows ?

Nah think thats a problem with the image grabber in general.

Other screen cap(ture) bugs include the volume/balance bar jumping a pixel up, the OADIV buttons jumping a pixel, the EQ bars as you've mentioned, the playlist window always being shown as black, with two solid colour bars at either side of it, oh and the fact that it takes reaaaaaaaaaaly nasty jpg's of those lovely 16million colour bitmaps

Back to the day job

cyana · 7th May 2001, 15:18

thank you Mr Jones - just wondering why those white lines are not constant on the screen shots ... ;-)
another thing is that the screenshot sometimes is nearly black - I guess this has something todo with the used color resolution ... (??)

6th May 2001, 12:55	#4
skinme! Forum King Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: 127.0.0.1 Website: skinme.net Posts: 3,352	Yes, this is a trick that not many know about. Any bitmap that has been trimed is still valid. Whereas, if you leave a bitmap out the default skin shines through in all its glory, trimming (resizing) a bitmap to omit a certain button or part of an element means that winamp will use the modified bitmap, drawing that and leave anything omited to the already drawn main.bmp or whatever. This effectively creates transparency where the background IS displayed. flyingfig (!?!), you state the posbar as an example. In the skin you mention, I think the posbar has a height of one pixel as opposed to the normal ten. This effect is achieved by having a btimap of 307 (is that right?) x 1. Other effects achievable through this method on posbar.bmp include getting rid of the active slider state and/or all buttons. Unfortunately, this method has its drawbacks. 1) Any element further left or right than the element you wish to eliminate will also be left out. 2) A posbar (or any element for that matter) of one pixel will not be centered (horizontally or vertically) in the space usually reserved for this element. Back to my history essay... He had decided to live forever, or die in the attempt In America - a must see film

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6th May 2001, 04:54	#1
flyingfig Junior Member Join Date: May 2001 Posts: 2	Hi! I'm working on my first skin and have come up on a bit of a problem - I know it's possible to make entire parts of the main window transparent using the region.txt file but I just need to make the edges of the various posbars transparent (or whatever would result in that appearance) because I'd like them to be quite a bit smaller than the defaults. And since they pass over a gradient background I can't really paint in the background. I've seen it done in skins before (Act 2 Finale for instance) so I know it's possible. I've looked in the NSDN for help but I couldn't find anything there (I may have missed something, it's totally possible). Maybe Winamp recognise a certain color as transparent (like in cursors) or something b/c .bmp's don't do transparency (?). And what of non-rectangular shapes? Gah, you all seem like a knowlegeable lot, any help here would be much appreciated. thanks! fig, hoping this wasn't too confusing

6th May 2001, 06:07	#2
Namelessv1 Forum King Join Date: Nov 2000 Posts: 4,757	Nope, sorry, cant be done. Ull just have to find some way to blend in the posbar. Now that takes skillz.

6th May 2001, 10:48	#3
Mr Jones Nothing to say... Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: UK Posts: 23,098	That "skin" you mentioned achieved it posbar effect by trimming the posbar.bmp image down to a single pixel wide line. If you open the bitmap up you will see what I mean, I think thats the effect you are trying to achieve.

7th May 2001, 09:32	#5
cyana total eclipsed (Major Dude) Join Date: Apr 2001 Posts: 1,488	another tradeoff of trimmed bitmaps I suspect might be that the skin is not displayed correct at the winamp site - those white lines on bottom of the equalizer sliders might result from trimming (???) - anybody knows ?

7th May 2001, 15:18	#7
cyana total eclipsed (Major Dude) Join Date: Apr 2001 Posts: 1,488	thank you Mr Jones - just wondering why those white lines are not constant on the screen shots ... ;-) another thing is that the screenshot sometimes is nearly black - I guess this has something todo with the used color resolution ... (??)